New list of abusive Jesuit priests begs question: How many more are out there?

The cascade of reports that we know about might be just the tip of the iceberg.

The Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province that covers 13 Midwestern and Southern states, Puerto Rico and Belize said Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, that it has found "credible allegations" of sexual abuse involving 42 priests and other ministry leaders dating to 1955.(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)

His list grew after Catholic Jesuit provinces released the names of 153 priests and brothers credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

The Jesuits' U.S. Central and Southern, and West provinces posted the names on their websites Friday, and the Chicago-based Midwest province plans to post its names Dec. 17.

The wholesale release of names of abusive priests has been trending among dioceses around the world since August, when a grand jury report identified 301 predator priests in Pennsylvania. Friday marked the first time a Jesuit order named their abusers in a long list.

While the Catholic priest abuse scandal might seem more transparent than ever, McKiernan said we know fewer than half of all abusive priests by name.

And McKiernan should know. As president and founder of Bishop Accountability, he has been tracking abusive clergy since a 2002 report revealed U.S. bishops hid predators and transferred them to parishes where they abused again.

The York Daily Record has determined that there are thousands of abusive priests who have not yet been identified, based on an analysis of data from Bishop Accountability.org, the U.S. Catholic Conference, Vatican statistics, Jesuit statistics and interviews.

How many priests have abused children?

Since the Boston scandal broke in 2002, U.S. Bishops have tallied 6,846 abusive priests who served in their parishes since the 1950s. Of those, about 4,500 have been named.

About 117,000 diocesean priests have served in the U.S. since 1950. It is believed that 10 percent of all priests, since at least the 1950s, have sexually abused children.

The U.S. Catholic Conference estimates a lower number at about 6 percent.

But an analysis of data from court cases, investigations, church bankruptcy filings and diocese records shows the rate is about 10 percent. Furthermore, clinicians who've treated abusive priests have estimated about 10 percent of all priests sexually abuse children.

The 10 percent suggests 11,700 of the 117,000 priests who served in the U.S. since 1950 have abused children. As of Friday morning, about 6,900 have been counted and 4,500 have been named.

In some areas it's more than 10 percent. For example, in the remote area of Fairbanks, Alaska, 19 percent of priests were found to have abused children.

Lists of abusive priests collected and shared by Bishop Accountability show several dioceses have identified between 8 percent and 10 percent of their priests since the 1950s as abusive. The pattern of abuse has been proven true in dioceses across the country, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status:

Boston - 11 percent

Covington - 10 percent

Harrisburg - 8 percent

Manchester, New Hampshire - 9 percent

Spokane - 9 percent

Dozens of dioceses across the country have released lists of abusive priests, and attorneys general have launched investigations in 14 states since the Pennsylvania report was released in August.

But there are still 100 dioceses in the U.S. that haven't named any abusive priests, McKiernan said.

The church-funded John Jay report that analyzed priest abuse in the Catholic church covered years 1950 to 2002. The study was commissioned after the Boston scandal prompted bishops to meet in Dallas in 2002.

That report was released in February 2004, and 2003 wasn't included.

"They left out one of the most important years. That's when a lot of victims were coming forward and talking about their abuse," McKiernan said.

Jesuit priest abuse in Pennsylvania

The U.S. Central and Southern Province on Friday released the names of 42 Jesuit priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

“The storm that the Church experiences today calls forth from us an unprecedented and yet needed response,” Provincial Ronald Mercier said in a statement Friday. “Silence in the face of the events of recent months cannot be an option.”

Mercier said the main focus of his province would be helping the victims who suffered "a terrible evil that wounds the soul."

Transparency will be key to acknowledging the abuse, healing and preventing it from happening again, he said.

In addition to the list released Friday, Mercier said Kinsale Management Consulting will review 2,500 Jesuit files dating back to the 1950s to determine if there are more abusers who need to be added to the list.

There's no such list that includes any Pennsylvania priests. Those on the list released Friday served mostly in the southern and western United States.

Other Jesuit provinces haven't released lists of abusive priests, and it's unclear if that will happen beyond the Midwest release on Dec. 17. Correspondence to other provinces was not returned.

There are presently 17,000 Jesuit priests and brothers worldwide, making it the largest male religious order in the Catholic church.

If the 10 percent holds here - and McKiernan believes it does - there could be 1,700 abusive Jesuit clergy.

"It's likely more of a problem with Jesuits because of access and the way they live," he said.

Jesuits, who practice as the Society of Jesus, frequently serve in teaching roles, such as in prep schools and other institutions. That creates access, McKiernan said.

While there has been no list released of abusive Jesuit priests in Pennsylvania, McKiernan has collected the cases he's aware of in this state:

Priest abuse still hidden

Federal prosecutors should take a hard look at the Catholic order priests, like the Jesuits, as they continue their sweeping investigation, according to Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims for decades.

"Those priests sexually abuse children just as much. There have been hundreds of cases," he said.

Order priests often serve in dioceses and answer to local bishops, but their order superiors are ultimately responsible for them. That means if a Jesuit priest is caught abusing a child in a local diocese, the local bishop can remove him from the parish or school, but the order would be responsible for defrocking the abusive priest. Likewise, the order would be responsible for any pension.

Former Harrisburg Bishop Kevin Rhoades on Nov. 23, 2005, stood in front of grieving parishioners at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Lewisburg and told them the Rev. Patrick Shannon, who was removed from ministry, loved them and wanted them to find strength in their faith.

“We need to pray for Father Shannon, his accuser and the Oblate superior,” Rhoades said.

Shannon was an order priest with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a religious order based in Wilmington, Delaware, that staffs dioceses throughout the East Coast.

Rhoades also told the parishioners that canon laws protect the rights of accused priests. Every step would be taken to restore his “good name” if the accusations were proven false.

Thirteen years later, the allegations have held up, and Shannon is still collecting wages and insurance from the Oblates, which found the allegations credible. The oblates placed Shannon on leave, Rhoades removed him from two parishes, and Shannon was ultimately sent to the Oblates' retirement community in Childs, Maryland.

Rhoades told the York Daily Record that he removed Shannon in November 2005 after the Oblates notified the Harrisburg diocese of a credible allegation of sexual assault. Shannon was accused of abusing a juvenile in 1973, when the priest was 33 years old.

"We had no idea about Shannon's past. We relied on the Oblate superiors to tell us if there was a problem. As soon as I learned of the abuse, I removed him from ministry," Rhoades said.

An order priest needs the permission of a bishop or archbishop to work in a diocese. The U.S. attorney should look into the working relationship between dioceses and orders, Garabedian said.

"Questions need to be asked: Are a bishop and archbishop involved in a cover up? Where is the priest coming from, and why is he coming here?" Garabedian said.

Prosecutors will have to ask and answer these questions so the public can someday have a full accounting of the number of abusive priests in the U.S. The church has proven repeatedly that it cannon self-police, he said.

"The Catholic Church doesn't care about protecting innocent children. It just cares about its image and how much money it has," Garabedian said.

The Rev. Richard Zula leaves court after a preliminary hearing before District Justice Frances Cornish of Confluence, Pa., on Dec. 21, 1988. In 1990, Zula received concurrent prison sentences for convictions in Washington and Somerset counties for sexually assaulting two boys. He died in 2017. Bill Levis/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

This January 1988 photo shows the Rev. Francis Pucci, a Roman Catholic Priest who was accused of sexual assault, but criminal charges were later dropped because the statute of limitations had passed. Pucci was forced by Bishop Donald Wuerl into early retirement and banned from parish ministry, allowed only to say Mass for nuns at the convent where he resided until his death in 2002. Bill Levis/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

The Rev. Robert Wolk, a Roman Catholic priest, is led from the courtroom by deputies after receiving a 5- to 10-year sentence from Judge George Ross for child molestation on April 3, 1990. Wolk voluntarily left the priesthood. Bill Levis/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP